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Tasty Fixings
"If three have eaten at one table and they
have spoken no words of Torah over it, etc." (Avot 3:3)
From Sefer Baal Shem Tov, translated by Eliezer Shore  | | " A dead person may be reincarnated into an animal that will serve as food for humans...." | | |
Woe to sons who have banished from the table
of their father! In the name of the Maggid of Mezritch, I heard an account of
the way in which the Baal Shem Tov explained this text, which declares that it
is as though these three ate of sacrifices to dead idols. The Hebrew, though,
means literally, "as though they ate of the sacrifices of the dead." The
esoteric meaning is that a dead person may be reincarnated into an animal that
will serve as food for humans, in order that they should say words of Torah over
it at their meal table - and through this the dead person who was reincarnated
will be given new life in the heavenly realm. But if no words of Torah are said,
the dead person reincarnated into the source of that food is simply "sacrificed"
and cast off to remain an inanimate entity.
This is why the text speaks of "the
sacrifices of the dead". And this is why we find in the Talmud (Berachot
3a): "Woe to sons who have banished from the table"; Who have they banished?
"Their father"! For it is possible that it was the father of the man who is
dining, that was reincarnated into the creature that provided the food...
[Be'er Mayin Chaim on the Passover Haggada; L'shon
Chassidim; Midrash Rivash Tov(5)] Channeling Blessings
Selected from the anthology, "Pirkei Avos in
the Light of Chassidus", by Yekutiel Green
"But [regarding] three who ate at one table and did
speak words of Torah there, it is as if they had eaten from the table of G-d." (Avot
3:3)
When a person eats bread, he adds life force to his
soul. This life force comes from the realm of separation, from the plane of
existence known as Noga, in which good and evil are mingled. But when a
person recites a blessing over the bread and Grace After Meals, he draws down G-dliness and sanctity into this added life-force as well, so that it also merges into G-dliness and does not remain in its former
state of separation. | | " Three men together...have the power to elicit a far higher level of sanctity..." | | |
Three men together, but not two, are called "many".
And they have the power to elicit a far higher level of sanctity and blessing
than one or two men.
This can be more clearly understood by the way of an
analogy: When someone wants to irrigate his land, he digs a deep pit by the side
of the river, and it fills up with water, becoming a large pool. Eventually the
water is drawn off the fields in measured amounts via small channels extending
from the main pool to all corners of the field. Similarly, when one wants to
pour himself a cup of water from a water barrel, and then pours himself a cup of
water from the jug.
A "zimun", where a minimum of three men are
invited to join in reciting Grace After Meals, is comparable to the deep pit dug
by the side of the river, from which smaller channels extend. And the reciting
of Grace After Meals itself is comparable to the smaller channels which draw the
water (representing life-force) to each individual field according to its needs.
Regarding three men who ate and did not recite words
of Torah, the Mishna stresses that their punishment is great: "it is as if they
had eaten of sacrifices to the dead" ("the dead" refers to the remains of the
"seven Edomite kings who died during the Shattering of the Vessels"). The food
is elevated through Torah, and especially through Torah learned in the company
of others. Then it becomes a well-spring from which many channels are fed.
Three together can recite "Let us bless" (in Hebrew, "nevarech"),
the opening phrase of the zimun, and in this way they form a "pool" (in
Hebrew, "bricha") of blessing so that each person partaking
of the meal can draw off water according to his needs. But this must be preceded
by words of Torah which enable them to form this pool of blessing.
From the Tzemech Tzedek's Or HaTorah, parashat Eikev,
pp. 538, 544
For further reading, see the complete index of all of our Pirkei Avot articles.
For further reading, see the complete index of all of our Pirkei Avot articles.
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